The present invention relates to a folding armrest, in particular for a motor vehicle, of the type that is movable by one of its ends about a hinge.
Typically, an armrest is disposed between the front seats of a vehicle, or between the seat portions of a rear seat, the armrest being, in both cases, hinged by its rear part and extending forward in a cantilever fashion.
In a known manner, such an armrest hinges between at least two positions, one of these being a substantially horizontal lower operational position, and the other a substantially vertical upper folded position, in order to be held therein by locking means, so that, if a user does not wish there to be an armrest, the latter will be disposed in the upper position and will be held therein without any risk of its dropping back down.
Locking means for obtaining this result are known and consist of snap-fastening means acting to provide locking automatically when the armrest is brought to the upper position or to the lower position, but which have to be unlocked manually to change positions.
This amounts to saying that an armrest, once locked in one position or the other, requires action by the user that compels him or her to push a release button and to follow the armrest through to the other position.
It will be readily appreciated that known armrests of this type are of a complex structure bringing into play a large number of parts, thirty or so in all, due, in particular, to the locking mechanism.
The object of the present invention is to remedy the aforementioned drawbacks, and it provides, for this purpose, a folding armrest, in particular for a motor vehicle, of the type that is movable via one of its ends about a hinge, between at least two positions, one of these being a substantially horizontal lower operational position, and the other a substantially vertical upper folded position, in order to be held therein by locking means, characterised in that said locking means are constituted by indexing means integral with one of the fixed or mobile parts of the hinge, in permanent elastic contact with the other part, said other part having at least two notches designed to co-operate with said indexing means so as to give the armrest at least two stable end positions, upper and lower, which can be taken up or left automatically simply by operating said armrest, depending on a predetermined force exerted by a user.
The present invention also relates to the characteristics that will emerge in the course of the following description, and which are to be considered individually or in all their possible technical combinations.